The results are in. While it appears that my manuscript may have spent a little longer than some on the discussion table, ultimately Hallmark decided it was not suited to their needs.

Now, to be fair, I realized when I wrote it that a) maybe I just couldn’t write an excellent manuscript in that short a time and b) I had approached this from a direction that Hallmark doesn’t usually take. Which, honestly speaking, may have been my ace-in-the-hole excuse for if they didn’t accept it. We writers can be sneaky, even to ourselves.

Nonetheless, like any other writer, I was disappointed.

Strangely enough, I picked up the email during a meeting of one of the writing groups I attend. My son and my friend who leads the group noticed the less-than-pleased look on my face, so I had to share the news, and wound up telling the group at large. Their support was a big help. I’ve also fallen back on the promise I made to myself to simply market it elsewhere, so that is in the game plan. I’ll go over it first, a little more slowly, to see if I can spot something it needs. Then I’ll send it out again.

It’s one of the hardest things a writer can do, brand new or seasoned, keeping a book circulating until it finds a publishing home. I’m not counting those writers with such a following that they seem to have self-perpetuating contracts. After all, I want to hate those people. For most of writers, every new book is an adventure not only in writing but in marketing as well. Like our children, we don’t know where our books will end up. We do our best and just hope they’ll end up someplace good for both of us.

Speaking  of not knowing where a book will end up…

A niece of  mine contributed one of my books to the ship library aboard a Princess cruise. My college roommate is planning on leaving a copy of another in the common room of the place they’ll be staying when they visit Ireland.  A third posted on Facebook  about reading boating mysteries at the waterfront, with a copy of my book in the picture. And another niece consistently passes along my posts and tweets, along with her own compliments of my books, because she likes them. There’s nothing like the support of family and friends. Special thanks to the ones who keep faithfully encouraging friends to read my work. It really helps.